You ever read/view something, say to yourself, “That would make a good blog post,” and totally forget to bookmark it? After my colleague Katie mentioned that the Philadelphia Museum of Art had a pencil bar, I told her I had just seen a post with behind-the-scenes videos of pencils being made.
Except: I didn’t have the link anywhere in my Pinboard, and my browser history didn’t turn up any hits. Turns out:
- I had read it via RSS reader
- It was on Kottke.org
The music on the Faber-Castell video is a bit … much, but I am fascinated by the multi-stage process. The Derwent video is (as noted by Jason Kottke) less slick, but it’s also more soothing as a result.
Some related bits ’n bobs:
- A New York Times photo essay from last year, with some great images from behind the scenes at the General Pencil factory
- Pencil Revolution, a pencil enthusiast blog
- In the early 2000s I lived in a converted Dixon Mills (maker of Ticonderoga pencils) factory in Jersey City. (It’s a bit shocking to me how much the real estate market has changed in JC.)
My friend Henry and I were discussing note-taking tools, and he mentioned that he’d been using some of the Blackwing line. I’ve always preferred a pen, but I’m starting to think I should give pencils a try.